Se o New York Mets continua feliz com a presença do ex-quarterback Tim Tebow, que superou a primeira rodada de dispensas entre os jogadores das Minor Leagues, um ex-companheiro deixou claro nesta quinta-feira (28) que esse sentimento não é unânime. Sem citar Tebow, o arremessador Andrew Church, que atuou pelas equipes afiliadas aos Mets no Triple-A e Double-A em 2019, fez um longo post no Instagram em que critica o ex-jogador de futebol americano.

Escolhido pela franquia na segunda rodada do Draft de 2013 direto do colegial, Church tem 25 anos e foi um dos atletas prejudicados pela pandemia causada pelo coronavírus. Com a temporada da Major League Baseball em suspenso e as Minor Leagues correndo sério risco de cancelamento, diversas franquias começaram a dispensar parte dos atletas, minimizando o prejuízo financeiro e colocando em risco a continuidade de diversas carreiras. E Church, um dos que engrossa a lista de desempregados, não ficou quieto.

Ele fez um longo post no Instagram criticando os Mets por, segundo o jogador, aproveitar-se dele e, sem citar Tebow, também falou sobre o ex-quarterback de Denver Broncos, New York Jets e New England Patriots. “(Os Mets) fizeram do nosso time uma piada ao trazer uma celebridade para vender ingressos. Eu vi jogadores perderem os empregos por isso. Não jogávamos para ganhar, mas sim para outra pessoa ganhar dinheiro. Não os jogadores. Nunca recebemos nada. Bom, há alegações de que um jogador ganhou. Acho que as pessoas estão entendendo mais isso agora, mas não viram isso em 2018, quando estava ocorrendo”, disse Church.

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Please read to understand my true feelings. Today I got released by the NY Mets organization. The people on the other end of the phone had nothing but good things to say and I appreciated that very much. Anyone that has seen me play and compete knows that I lay it all on the line no matter what. Every practice, every game. I am a competitor, a true warrior. It’s in my DNA. From the outside looking in, my baseball career probably raises a lot of questions. Why did you retire and come back? How come your numbers aren’t very good if you were that dedicated? I have always kept my opinions to myself out of respect for the organization I signed a contract with. But now that it’s officially over with them I’d like to say some things. One of the main reasons I retired was to keep myself from expressing how I felt. I was bitter, frustrated, and angry at the Mets organization. I felt my competitive nature was being taken advantage of. They knew I would never say no to competing and would fly me around to fill in for anyone that got injured. I realized this wasn’t in my best interest when my delayed flight finally landed in the 3rd inning, and I was on the mound in a AAA baseball game for the first time, without any warm up throws. My UCL originally tore that night. Instead of seeing a doctors like I asked, they sent me back to High A to pitch in the playoffs. When I told them I couldn’t I was made out to be the bad guy. Then the next year, they made a mockery of our team by putting a celebrity on it to sell more tickets. I saw players lose their jobs because of it. We weren’t playing to win, we were playing to make everyone else money. Not the players. We never saw a cut. Well, allegedly that one player did. I think people are starting to understand that more now but they didn’t in 2018 when it was happening again. I was fed up. I spent my whole childhood honing in my passion and anger, to not let it get out of control, but it was and I was going to explode. So I took the opposite direction, I bottled it and silenced myself. I took some time away and cleared my head. Continued in comments..

A post shared by Andrew Church (@papachurch36) on May 28, 2020 at 6:29pm PDT

O arremessador, que jogou principalmente como titular ao longo da carreira, foi companheiro de Tebow durante parte do último ano, quando o ex-jogador da NFL atuou no Syracuse Mets, equipe de Triple-A, passagem essa que terminou após uma lesão na mão esquerda.

Após o início tardio como outfielder, Tebow vem subindo lentamente pelo sistema de Minor Leagues dos Mets (enquanto compartilha o tempo nos gramados com o posto de comentarista de NCAA para a SEC Network), mas o desempenho está longe de ser digno de um bom prospecto: na carreira, ele soma em 1.048 at-bats espalhados por 287 jogos, tem apenas 22,3% de aproveitamento, com 18 home runs, 48 rebatidas duplas e 107 corridas impulsionadas.

Crédito das imagens: Reprodução/ Twitter MLB e Reprodução Twitter/New York Mets